This invention is directed to a method of producing collagen from hydrolyzed egg membranes and more particularly to producing collagen from hydrolyzed egg membrane having lysozyme, ova transferrin, and sialic acid (LOS).
Eggshell membranes are well known as a source of valuable bioactive materials, including collagen, that have widespread applications in medical, health, and cosmetic industries for joint and wound healing and skin care. To date, a major drawback to their use has been the difficulty in solubilizing these materials in a sufficiently stable and active pure form at an industrial scale so that high yield is achieved in an economic manner without using caustic solvents.
The amount of detectable and usable collagen type protein solubilized from the starting material by known processes is low, the techniques are not cost-effective, and often the recovered protein components do not maintain their native activity—i.e., they are not as stable as commercialization demands. Therefore an inexpensive process for producing collagen type protein from hydrolyzed egg membranes while maintaining both yield, purity and activity of the solubilized collagen type protein is needed, particularly one suited for commercial scale implementation.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a method of solubilization of egg membranes and collagen type protein extraction under chemically neutral conditions without the use of caustic solvents.
A further objective of the present invention is to produce an improved collagen through a method that uses hydrolyzed egg membranes.
These and other objectives will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art based upon the following written description, drawings, and claims.